How to relieve muscle pain from exercise

When we wake up the next morning after exercise, we may feel sore all over. This phenomenon is often because a large amount of lactic acid is produced in the body after exercise. This phenomenon is generally temporary and will recover on its own in about a day or two. However, muscle soreness has a great impact on our physical exercise the next day, and may even cause muscle stiffness or cramps. Let’s take a look at how to relieve muscle soreness caused by exercise.

Most people will experience muscle soreness 12 to 48 hours after exercise. If you are not used to exercise and this is your first training session, the soreness will be more obvious. The scientific name for this type of soreness is: delayed onset muscle soreness. It is caused by the accumulation of lactic acid and the breakdown of muscle microstructure. Lactic acid accumulation is caused by the presence of lactic acid in the metabolic products of glycolysis during strength training; the damage to the muscle microstructure will heal during the recovery period after training, and the healed muscles will become thicker than the original muscle fibers. This is called the super recovery principle, which is the driving force of muscle growth.

Early cold compress: Immediately after heavy weight training, use ice packs to cool the target muscles. Generally, the cold compress lasts for 10 to 15 minutes. Place clothing or towels between the ice pack and the skin to prevent frostbite. Or a cold shower. The national weightlifting team has a special ice and snow room in the General Administration of Sports' Heavy Duty Arena. After heavy weight training, the national team players go directly into the ice and snow room with a temperature set at 0 degrees in their underwear in order to speed up their recovery.

Nutritional supplement: Consuming a large amount of carbohydrates within 2 hours after training can help restore muscle glycogen levels, so you should have a meal within 2 hours after training. There is no need to take supplements for general fitness training. Just make sure to replenish carbohydrates in a timely manner, eat more fruits and vegetables, and supplement food protein.

When we exercise, we should arrange the load of muscle training reasonably according to our physical condition and our health condition, and do not perform high-intensity physical exercise on a certain part of our body for a long time. We must pay attention to warm-up exercises before exercising, and do some relaxation exercises after exercising. This will minimize the phenomenon of muscle soreness caused by exercise.